Sun, Feb 03, 2008

With his recent encouragement to Congress to ban human cloning, President Bush is sure to come under the fire of the scientific research community and a media that wants nothing to stand in the way of the progress of science towards "future cures."

Now it appears that John McCain is on an unobstructed flight path to the nomination, facing a few crosswinds but no serious navigation hazards, while the two leading Democrats, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, are on the collision course.

While President George W. Bush has maintained neutrality among contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, he privately expresses to friends his exasperation with Mitt Romney's hard-line stance on immigration.

What’s messier and more shameless than candidates campaigning to save the economy? Media coverage of that economy – the one all the candidates want to “stimulate.” The media coverage that’s driving people’s votes.

Few people in the public eye can escape hate mail. Public scrutiny is one thing, but the sophomoric and so often crude letters designed to ruin the recipient's day are increasingly the gambit of idiots.

Fri, Feb 01, 2008

It's long past time we got a political grip. Americans, Republicans especially, need a little perspective. In the days before Super Tuesday, as the race for the GOP nomination became John McCain's to lose, McCain continued his dishonest and dishonorable attacks against Mitt Romney.

It’s a shame that the Kennedy family has already tossed its collective weight behind Barack Obama in the Democratic race for the presidency. After all, we haven’t heard from all the Democratic candidates yet.

We have been hearing for years that Senator John McCain gives "straight talk" and his bus has been endlessly referred to as the "straight talk express." But endless repetition does not make something true.

The University of North Carolina - Wishful Thinking (UNCW) has announced the establishment of a new journal called The Journal of Genetic Rationalization. Professors in the Department of Genetic and Social Engineering will be responsible for editing the quarterly journal.

We're at that lull in the presidential primary season when pundits try to
make the most of the least election returns. Iowa and New Hampshire are in,
plus Barack Obama's landslide in South Carolina and now Florida's votes.

When you're trying to fashion yourself as an agent of change, it isn't helpful when the sisters of politics past abandon their golf club picket lines in girly protest of mean men who support male candidates.

There was general amazement when (the now-muzzled) Bill Clinton did his red-faced, attack-dog, race-baiting performance in South Carolina. Friends, Democrats and longtime media sycophants were shocked.

In the two days since Florida and in the one day from the debate at the Reagan Library, conservatives across the country are sounding the alarm that John McCain's nomination means the end of the Reagan agenda.

Until last night, when I watched the Republican debate, I had no idea how much John McCain dislikes me and just about everybody else but Rudy Giuliani, who if you believe The New York Times is a pretty good hater himself.

The Democrats are trying to give away an election they should win in a walk by nominating someone with real problems -- like, for example, a first-term senator with a 100 percent rating from Americans for Democratic Action and whose middle name is "Hussein."

The famously superstitious John McCain carries a lucky nickel. It apparently has been working its magic. Since McCain impaled his campaign in the summer on the issue of "comprehensive" immigration reform, everything has broken his way.

I have been critical of the fiscal irresponsibility
displayed by Congress and President George W. Bush over the past several
years. Neither has shown the restraint necessary to rein in the Federal
Government's deficit spending.

Florida was big. Florida Republicans not only went for John McCain over Mitt Romney, but also, when you add the McCain vote (36 percent) to the now-withdrawn Rudy Giuliani vote (15 percent), you see a shift.

Since well back into 2007, this column has been predicting that Florida would decide both the Democratic and GOP nominations. I believe it did, and in the process has blown apart the political world we have known for decades.

He strode to the stage with all his loose, geeky charisma intact, looking like a cross between a rock star and an accountant. Not many men can pull off the look but, then, is there anyone else on the American stage quite like Rudy?

Given that hard evidence is often scarce in trials of unsuccessful terrorists, federal prosecutors in Miami no doubt felt fortunate to be trying defendants who participated in a ceremony pledging allegiance to al Qaeda.

With all the recent talk of recession, the housing crisis and the downturn in the stock market, many families and individuals are concerned that they may suffer significant financial hardships in the year ahead.

Forget Iowa and New Hampshire, ignore South Carolina and Florida yesterday, and pay no mind to Super Tuesday. In fact, why not skip the increasingly pointless Democratic and Republican national conventions?

Some may agree with Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) positions on his myriad of causes and enthusiasms. Others may embrace Mitt Romney’s record as governor and his experience in business. But one fact remains pre-eminent — McCain has a much better chance of winning the election than does former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R).

Who says bipartisanship is dead? From President Bush to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, to Mitt Romney and John McCain, virtually everyone in Washington agrees: The government must Do Something.

Brokaw doesn't want Republicans to have any troublesome litmus tests to decide which candidate is most conservative, not only because moderates like McCain will fail the test but because it leads Republicans to pitch campaign promises at that conservative base that the media would like to believe is irrelevant.

The metaphor that is being more bandied about is that this is "The Last Hurrah" for the Clintons. What the Clintons are betting on is that the correct correlation is to Walter Mondale's 1984 nomination fight with Gary Hart.

Tue, Jan 29, 2008

Several developments over the last three months seem to indicate that our society is at a moment of decision regarding capital punishment. It behooves us, therefore, to think seriously about this issue.

Bush's greatest challenge during the State of the Union address was to be heard above the cultural cacophony in America — fears about an economic recession, the still-simmering anger over the Iraqi war, and uncertainty in both parties.

I am delivering a Conservative Response not to oppose the President, but to compliment what the President has proposed. The President last night took some bold positions and we will work to support his principled stands. But more must be done.

For four years, a list of alleged Republican positions has been circulating on the Internet and forwarded in countless e-mails. If people want to vote for a Democratic president, they should not do so based on falsehoods about Republicans.

Barack Obama routed Hillary Clinton two to one in the heaviest turnout in a Democratic primary in the history of South Carolina. Such a defeat would normally be a crushing and perhaps fatal blow to a rival's campaign.

Mon, Jan 28, 2008

A number of issues are weighing on the minds of voters. The economy, national security, and the rising cost of health care are only a few of them. America needs an accomplished and trusted leader to take on these problems.

White House aides are promising that President Bush will announce “unprecedented” action against earmarks in his last State of the Union address this evening, but there are grumblings that it’s nothing more than a lame duck promise.

Barack Obama's overwhelming victory in South Carolina over a stunningly tone-deaf Hillary Clinton may change the political landscape in America for decades to come. Or, it may not have any effect on Super Tuesday (February 5) at all.

There is nothing like the prospect of losing to focus one's mind. That might explain the dynamic at work in the East Room of the White House on the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States.

Barack Obama used his victory in South Carolina to change the dialogue with the Clintons in the presidential race. He has taken Hillary’s and Bill’s attempt to use the race issue and replied with a clever move. He has basically called their bluff.

Some years ago, I was a movie reviewer. I started out at UCLA, reviewing for the Daily Bruin, and then moved on to be the first critic for Los Angeles magazine. All told, I stuck it out for about a dozen years.

Touted as the only "real conservative," a careful look shows that this label was pretty dubious. His ideas were devoid of the vision and leadership that fueled Republican ascendancy a quarter-century ago and badly needed today.

Last week, Bill Clinton took pains to point out that a Hillary Clinton-John McCain match-up would be “the most civilized election in American history” because the candidates “like and respect each other” so much.

Our tongue-in-cheek wager based on the political fortunes of “your” nanny-stater, John Edwards, against “my” nanny-stater, Barack Obama was justifiably tweaked by some readers who want us to take on the leftward slide on the Republican side.

Washington, D.C. is a place where delusions go to thrive. That explains why Congress and the president are now agreed on remedies that will not work, expending money they do not have, to fix a problem that may not exist.

Come November, voters will decide more than half a million federal, state and local officeholders and ballot initiatives. Ninety-nine percent of these will matter less than five civil rights initiatives.

The U.S. treasury secretary did such a poor job representing the White House in negotiations on the economic stimulus deal, it wasn’t clear if Paulson was purposely trying to help House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or simply unaccustomed to how business is done in Washington.

In the border fence debate in 2007, McCain showed more contempt for his fellow Americans, his fellow Senators, and the voters he was even then campaigning in front of than can be recalled in recent years.